Growing wild chickpeas

Wild, perennial Cicer spp. were grown with varying success. Cicer judaicum and Cicer cuneatum were grown easily, whereas Cicer bijugum, Cicer pinnatifidum, Cicer reticulatum and Cicer chorassanicum posed some problems. Cicer yamashitae and Cicer echinospermum have to be very carefully nurtured. Thus far only C. reticulatum has produced fertile hybrids with Cicer arietum as the female parent. Other crosses failed, or the seeds obtained produced sterile offspring. Better results can be expected under controlled environments. Several hints are given to improve production of wild Cicer spp. Crossing seems to present formidable barriers, howeve

Pigeonpea genetic resources at ICRISAT

An extensive germplasm collection is the cornerstone of any effective plant breeding program. ICRISAT in India maintains collections of 8,815 pigeonpea cultivars from 32 countries. The majority originated in India. Seed and information on available cultivars is available to any qualified researcher. Germplasm stock is also maintained for wild relatives of the pigeonpe

Taxonomy of grain legumes

The taxonomy; of grain legumes is relatively uncomplicated compared to that of cereals, brassicas and some other groups of plants because, in general, only limited gene pools have been available for selection and subsequent plant breeding. Then again, intergeneric legume hybrids are not known in nature and artificial crosses attempting to create them are seldom, if ever, successful [64]. Indeed, the genetic barriers between species and species groups are often substantial [86,87]. The classification' of interfertile species and infraspecific variants is inherently more difficult and the taxonomic situation in grain legumes is not exceptional. In some instances the available information would now seem to justify updating of the taxonomic framework

Use made of wild legume relatives in breeding

Presently vast genetic resources are available for improvement of the main crops used by humans and animals. The ex-situ collections safeguard those resources collected in the past, although not all collections are safe even today as far as personnel and facilities are concerned. Use of in-situ collections is feasible but meeting with obstacles. Free accessibility is not as straightforward as has been in the past. Apart from the cultivated accessions of crops, wild relatives have always attracted breeders, for these contril?ute many useful traits. Their genetic background, particularly of species in the secondary or tertiary genepool, makes transfer difficult requiring new techniques to effectuate gene transfers. There have been many attempts and evaluation and conservation of wild relatives is usually a task taken up by most genebanks. Genetic modification, the modem way of transferring wanted genes, has barely begun for the legume food crops. This paper presents some examples of successful use made of wild relatives of chickpea, pigeonpea, fababean and lentil for breeding ) during the past decennia

Inheritance of some qualitative characters in chickpea (Geer arietinum L.)

Inheritance of eight morphological characters, namely, prostrate growth habit; narrow, bicompound and simple leaves; purple and light green foliage colours; light blue corolla and green seed coat colour, was studied. AU the traits except the light blue corolla showed monofactorial recessive inheritance, while the light blue corolla involved interaction of two recessive factors. Joint segregations of narrow leaf and double-flowered peduncle and simple leaf and light blue corolla were studied, and in both cases no linkage was detected

Induced autotetraploidy in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

In chickpea, out of three colchicine concentrations and two treatment durations used (combinations of 0.25, 0.05, 0.025% colchicine and 4 and 6 h duration), seed treatment with 0.25% for 4 h proved to be the most effective in producing autotetraploids. Colchicine treatment on seedlings failed. The induced tetraploidy was accompanied by larger leaves, flowers, stomata, pollen grains and seeds. Mean percentage stainable pollen and podset were reduced, but some plants had relatively normal meiosis and produced as many pods as the diploid parent, indicating the potential of induced autotetraploids in chickpea improvement

Preliminary Results on Evaluation of Chickpea, Cicer arietinum, Genotypes for Resistance to the Pulse Beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus

The chickpea, Cicer arietinum L. (Fabales: Fabaceae), seeds are vulnerable, both in the field and in storage, to attack by seed-beetles. Beetles of the genus Callosobruchus are major storage pests of chickpea crops and cause considerable economic losses. In the present study, a total of 11 chickpea genotypes including five ‘kabuli’ (Mexican white, Diyar, CA 2969, ILC 8617 and ACC 245) and six ‘desi’ chickpeas (ICC 1069, ICC 12422, ICC 14336, ICC 4957, ICC 4969 and ICC 7509) were evaluated for resistance to the pulse beetle Callosobruchus maculatus F. (Coleoptera: Bruchidae). Resistance was evaluated by measuring percent damage to seeds. Damage to seeds by C. maculatus was manifested by the round exit holes with the ‘flap’ of seed coat made by emerging adults. Of the 11 genotypes tested, only one (ICC 4969) exhibited a complete resistance to C. maculatus in both free-choice and no-choice tests; no seed damage was found over the test period. In general, the ‘desi’ chickpeas were more resistant to C. maculatus than the ‘kabuli’ chickpeas. Among the tested chickpea genotypes, only ICC 4969 can be used as a source of C. maculatus resistance in breeding programmes that could then be grown in organic cultivation free from pesticides